Quintana Roo 2015 – Updated Hotfix released

Disclaimer: The information in this document is written in response to an announcement by the government of Mexico about changes in the daylight saving time in Quintana Roo for the year of 2015.

The steps provided in this bulletin were created to mitigate the impacts that the daylight saving time changes will cause for customers in Mexico. These are the impacts primarily anticipated at the time this document was written, and the effects that customers may face are not restricted to them.

The suggested actions on this document might receive additional testing. The information described in this document may change without notice.

In addition, customers should be aware that further guidance may be provided at any time by Microsoft.

On December 4th 2014, the estate of Quintana Roo was approved to be under a new time zone in order to promote tourism and be more competitive with other nearby destinations in the Caribbean.

Previously Quintana Roo was using GMT-6, with this change it will be using GMT-5. This fast-tracked change came with little advance notice and official decree was published on January 31st, 2015.

Since the new time zone announced is different from what was defined in the previous years, Windows-based computers will not correctly interpret the time that is related to the transition to daylight savings time (DST).

Our teams at Microsoft have taken several steps to alert customers and partners about this new time zone.

A new time zone, “Eastern Standard Time (Mexico),” was added in KB 3039024. It was originally set to observe DST from the first Sunday of April through the last Sunday of October. However, according to the latest announcement from the Mexican government, this time zone does not observe DST. Therefore, the previous DST rules for this time zone are removed in this update.

General recommendations

After installing this hotfix, Windows will have a new time zone: (UTC-05:00) Chetumal. You will need to then select this new time zone on Date and time settings.

Please note that if you adjust the machine’s clock manually, you may have adverse effects on your environment. This procedure is not supported by Microsoft.

If you moved your computer to another time zone as a workaround, you will need to perform additional steps to adjust your calendar. Please review the section below How to correct Outlook calendars to find out more information.

Contact Microsoft Support prior to any modification if you are unsure about the steps to follow in order to be prepared for the Daylight Saving Time change in Quintana Roo.

How to update Windows Servers and Desktop Operating Systems

For further information on how to update your Windows Operating system, please refer to the following article

914387 - How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems

How to correct Outlook calendars

Customer needs to follow the steps described on KB931667 to update Outlook calendar. Also, you can refer to the following article http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst “Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center”.

Recommendations to minimize the impacts on Outlook/Exchange:

Simulate the changes on a lab environment, so you know what will happen and what to expect.

Work in conjunction with the operating system team to update the DST dates as soon as possible to minimize the chance of users creating new appointments before the hotfix is installed.

Before doing any change on the DST information, request the users to print their schedule so they have a reference to follow in order to manually update the appointments later if needed.

Take a full online backup of your Exchange Servers in case you decide to use the Exchange Calendar Update Tool.

For the meetings with multiple attendees only the meeting requestor should update the time and send the update to the others.

Include the time of the meeting in the e-mail request so that invitees can double check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 A.M. Asuncion Time").

Exercise caution with the appointments and meetings in the extended DST period. When in doubt, verify the correct time with the organizer.

References:

941018 How to address daylight saving time by using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

Note: This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500) for other considerations.